Fairweather keeps support of community

For 20 years, Fairweather Natural Foods has stood the test of time. With a loyal client base, owner Jen Rattray has made it through the slumps in between seasons, dry winters and incoming competition. Her store remains in the same location on Ironhorse Drive where it has always been, Rattray happily recommending herbal supplements and tracking the latest in health trends, from vegan non-soy dairy to gluten-free bread mixes.

"I think its amazing how innovative this industry has become," Rattray said. "It’s so cool that people are figuring out how to make raw food shelf-stable and how in the supplement industry there’s been a big shift away from this pharmaceutical, synthetic grade multivitamin to a more popular natural food supplement, taking high-quality organic food and binding it with vitamins and minerals, growing them in with the food."

Sitting on the rows of food in the store, locally-sourced ingredients and employee-owned businesses represent the modern health food movement, a constantly evolving selection of what the health food industry has to offer. Some of the brands are instantly recognizable, but other food stuffs are rarer, the brands that could only be carried by small businesses like Fairweather Natural Foods.

"We can offer the community a selection of everything that you would need in a natural food store," Rattray said. "You can shop bulk. Our produce is exclusively organic. We have a pretty complete selection of supplements. Everything in this store is guaranteed to be free of artificial ingredients, everything is natural."

Before the plant-based, health food brand Probar became what it is today, a nationally known business selling in grocery stores across America, its first distributor was Fairweather Natural Foods. Stories like this make up a small but important part of what keeps her business alive, Rattray said.

Rattray is originally from New Jersey, but she found a passion for healthy living after getting a job after high school at a natural foods-themed diner. Moving on the Boulder, Colo. for college, she threw herself into the discipline. Rattray even spent a year studying herbal medicine in California before she finally made the move to Park City.

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Fairweather Natural Foods offers a wide grocery selection, herbal supplements and personal body-care products. In recent years, Rattray has grown the other side of her business, a small café selling soups, salads and sandwiches.

It’s the kind of business where customers sick with the flu call in asking for a natural food remedy. Rattray would pack a bag of groceries or whatever they needed, setting the bag aside for a friend on their way to pick up. She’s made special soups and sandwiches, recommended a natural treatment for this-or-that ailment, catering in a way only a small business could.

"We have good service here," she said. "You come in here and we know your name. As you become a regular, you get that customized service that you won’t necessarily get in a big store. Because we’re smaller, we can help people individually."

To celebrate the 20-year anniversary, Fairweather is offering specials all month long and on Saturday shoppers will receive a complimentary grocery bag, samples and gifts from various natural food vendors. There will also be an opportunity drawing for a special Fairweather Natural Foods gift basket.